Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Tuesday Ontario MP Jamil Jivani does not speak for the party after Jivani told a right-wing U.S. news site that Canada is harming itself with an "anti-America hissy fit." In a scrum with reporters, Poilievre was peppered with questions about Jivani's recent trip to Washington, D.C., and comments made to Breitbart News that Canadians would...
Conservative leader says he spoke to Jivani following MP's trip to Washington. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he disagrees with how one of his MPs recently characterized Canada's reaction to U.S President Donald Trump's tariffs and taunts. Following a recent trip to the U.S. capital, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani told the right-wing U.S. media outlet Breitbart News that "we are...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is returning to B.C. today less than a week after he attended a vigil honouring the victims of a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. While in B.C., the prime minister will attend a Liberal Party fundraiser at a private residence in Vancouver, with tickets costing $1,775. Carney's itinerary says he will be in Richmond, B.C....
With the United States House of Representatives voting to overturn President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs on Canada, Canadian Senators who were on a recent delegation to Washington, D.C., say they are hopeful that the tide is changing. The Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group (IPG) travelled to the American capital Jan. 21-22 as part of the Future Borders Coalition Transportation Border Summit. During...
Federal government rejected a recommended $28K-$36K salary hike for judges. An association of federal judges is asking the government to refer a dispute related to their compensation directly to the Supreme Court, according to a letter obtained by Radio-Canada. The Canadian Superior Court Judges Association argues it would be more efficient to simply ask the Supreme Court to settle the...
More than 30 years after the narrowly defeated second Quebec referendum, the separatist movement has been resurrected again on the backs of a resurgent Parti Québécois, who have not governed the province in more than a decade With still much to be decided in the fall provincial race – and when, if ever, the PQ decides “winning conditions” make it...
From January 21 to 28, 2026, Abacus Data surveyed 601 adults living in Nova Scotia. Our latest Nova Scotia release provides a detailed snapshot of the province’s political landscape as Premier Tim Houston and his Progressive Conservative government returns to the legislature and prepares to table their 2026-27 budget, which is widely expected to emphasize spending restraint.
By now, nearly everyone has had a whack at Conservative MP Jamil Jivani’s bizarre solo diplomatic mission to Washington. It was never clear what the trip was supposed to accomplish. Mr. Jivani does not represent the government of Canada; he does not even represent his own party. There was nothing he could offer the Americans, and nothing they could offer...
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. That’s known as the “First Law of Holes,” and it’s wisdom the caucus colleagues of Conservative MP Jamil Jivani desperately need to familiarize him with before he digs any deeper into the political hole they’ve all found themselves in. It was bad enough that he decided to freelance a trip down...
The memberships have been sold, entry fees have been paid and now the NDP leadership candidates are preparing for their second and final party-organized debate in B.C. on Feb. 19. This second debate will be held in English. The first debate, held in November, was supposed to be a French-language debate -- but since most of the candidates are not...
British Columbia's finance minister begins selling a budget today that has drawn critics from all sides with its soaring debt and deficit, public sector cuts, and construction delays for care homes, student housing and a cancer centre. Brenda Bailey calls the budget "serious work for serious times." It raises the base income tax rate by 0.54 per cent -- the...
While the terrible tragedy at Tumbler Ridge prevented Prime Minister Mark Carney from attending this year’s Munich Security Conference, echoes of his recent Davos speech could be heard throughout the meeting halls, hallways, and bars of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel. I was there again this year as a Canadian parliamentarian and Senate committee chair, so some of those conversations were...
The GM plant in Oshawa often feels like a mythical place. Long-time residents in the region tell stories of a time when it was a hub of prosperity for tens of thousands of families. They say, when shifts would end, there were so many GM employees that some roads would become one-way streets so workers could drive home in an...
The sight of David McGuinty as a silent presence at the prime minister’s announcement Tuesday of a new defence industrial strategy was a reminder that, while that government purports to be a team, it is really a confederation of warring tribes. The defence minister is ostensibly the lead author of the plan, but it seems to have been hijacked by...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was like Oprah handing out free cars when he named his shadow cabinet last May. More than half of the Conservative caucus got a role; it’s possible that the guy who vacuums the rugs in MPs’ offices was accidentally named shadow minister for small business for a brief moment during the flurry of appointments. But notably...
For generations, Canada lived under a durable assumption: integration guarantees security. We carried the flag for multilateralism in the postwar period, embedding ourselves in alliances, supply chains and global markets, confident that economic openness and collective defence would reinforce our sovereignty. By and large, that strategy helped Canada prosper. But in today’s volatile world, it no longer holds.
Prime Minister Mark Carney revealed his government’s Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) Tuesday, including plans to spend more than 6 billion additional dollars transforming the Canadian Armed Forces into a modern self-sufficient military force. Carney said the plan’s primary role will be to defend Canada and Canadian sovereignty. But it will also meet NATO obligations with like-minded allies and allow Canada...
Embedded in the marquee numbers of the Defence Industrial Strategy Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled on Tuesday was a long-unfathomable message: the United States is no longer a reliable ally, but a potential kinetic enemy. “The assumptions that defined decades of Canadian defence and foreign policy have been turned upside down,” Mr. Carney said at the DIS unveiling in Montreal...
Canada’s defence industry got a $6.6 billion boost Tuesday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney formally unveiled Ottawa’s new Defence Industrial Strategy. The plan promises to create 125,000 new jobs over 10 years and award 70 per cent of defence contracts to Canadian companies, through a “Build-Partner-Buy” framework that prioritizes domestic industry. It is part of the government’s plan to increase...
Over the past week, both Campbell Clark in The Globe and Mail and Althia Raj in The Toronto Star have written about a section of Bill C-4 (the federal affordability bill) that deals with political party privacy rules. Both have raised serious concerns, using words like “cahoots,” “cabal,” “lawless,” and “above the law” to describe the cross-partisan agreement behind it...
The opposition parties were all trumped, as it were, in last year’s election. They may well face the same fate again this year as talk of an election call in Canada grows. If an election does occur, Donald Trump’s continued raft of threats, insults and incoherent rants is a gift to the Liberals. His behaviour underlines the threat he represents...
Prime Minister Mark Carney won many plaudits for his recent speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in which he warned that the rules-based economic order is over, and that “middle powers” such as Canada must work together against great-power coercion. The speech continued making waves at last week’s Munich Security Conference. But talk is cheap and applause...
The Supreme Court of Canada’s February 13th decision to nullify last April’s “single vote election win” in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne has increased the number of anticipated federal byelections to three — a number of exceptional importance based on the minority status of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government in the House of Commons. The departure of University-Rosedale MP...
It’s unanimous: Federal political parties agree that they should be above the law. In this instance, the laws in question are provincial privacy laws that set limits on how your personal information can be used and provide individuals with some rights to know what information has been collected. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government snuck measures into a bill on...
Canada’s political parties are in cahoots. The Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats are attempting to grant themselves the right to do what they want with your personal information — without your knowledge or third-party oversight.
Silence is a decision. And this is, effectively, where Pierre Poilievre now finds himself on the issue of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The British band The Clash famously asked “Should I Stay or Should I Go” in its 1982 hit song. That was two years after Quebecers were asked a far wordier question about independence. How a question is phrased — and what response options are offered — can have a massive impact on a study’s results.
The fun thing about Ottawa is that it’s a town where people will swear with a straight face that they’re not thinking about a thing they are definitely thinking about, which is also the thing everyone is talking about. This week, that thing is snap-election speculation. It’s easy to picture the polls batting their eyelashes and waving seductively at the...
The NDP’s leadership race is hurtling toward the March 29 finish line, with all five declared candidates still in the race, having met their fundraising and signature-gathering requirements. There are differences emerging from the “violent agreement” that we normally see in NDP leadership races, and this could indeed be an existential choice that the party faces as they determine what...
Everybody knows what’s happening with Donald Trump’s threat to block the opening of a Detroit-Windsor bridge. At least, everybody in the political system in Washington and Ottawa. It’s a shakedown, with a choke point in Canada-U.S. relations as leverage. Detroit border crossings have been used that way for years. Now it’s a pretty good analogy for all of U.S. foreign...
They are greyer now: greyer of hair and face, but also in perception. In their younger days, they saw things more in black and white, as we saw them. But the years have passed, and now we see them through a mist of … what? Nostalgia? Ambivalence? Maybe say complexity, and respect, and, finally, gratitude. They are the lions in...
Many people in Ottawa, even some who know her well, did not know until this week that the former national director of the New Democratic Party, Anne McGrath, is the survivor of a school shooting. McGrath doesn’t tend to bring it up often, but every time there is a school shooting, as there was this week In Tumbler Ridge, B.C....
It’s not hard to imagine what would have happened if a year ago, or even a few months ago, Donald Trump had threatened to block the new Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. Shock and horror on the Canadian side. Front-page coverage in the Canadian media. Opposition calls for the government to do something.
Canada has a big, beautiful piece of infrastructure we think you might be interested in. It’s a tremendous, wonderful bridge, and it’s already been paid for — you only have to take the credit. And just because it’s you, because you’re such a clever and strong president, we named it for the best right-winger the Detroit Red Wings ever had...
Last week Conservative MP for Bowmanville-Oshawa North, Jamil Jivani, stated that he was going down to Washington, DC, in an effort to help move Canada-US trade relations along. Jivani has a longstanding friendship with the US Vice President JD Vance, so it would make sense for him to leverage his personal relationships in a professional capacity. Except, of course, Jivani...
The mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge is the kind of tragedy that Canada, unfortunately, has seen too often in recent decades. It will take some time to fully understand how this horror occurred. But we know the results. Nine people are dead: A mother, an educator, six children, and the shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party will fight for a united Canada as a movement in Alberta pushes for that province to separate. Answering a question from a reporter today, Poilievre said the Conservatives are "entirely a federalist caucus" and that he has not had a single member of Parliament on his team express they are in favour of...
VICTORIA -- British Columbia Finance Minister Brenda Bailey has unveiled what she calls a “serious” budget for 2026 that raises the base income tax rate while failing to rein in the deficit as previously pledged.
TERREBONNE -- Residents of the Montreal-area federal riding of Terrebonne said Tuesday that every vote in an election should count, following a recent Supreme Court decision that forced their MP to vacate her seat.
Public Services and Procurement Canada will not answer repeated questions about whether there will be enough office space to accommodate the federal government's new policy on in-office work. Most public servants are expected to be in the office three days per week and executives are expected to attend the office four days per week, with the remaining days being worked...
Jivani joined Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle on the program on the heels of meeting with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month, which led to a liberal member of parliament, John-Paul Danko, labeling Jivani a Nazi sympathizer.
Statistics Canada reported an easing in the headline inflation rate Tuesday but a jump in the pace of food inflation amid tax changes and lingering pressures at the grocery store continue to put the squeeze on consumers. StatCan said Tuesday that the annual rate of inflation edged down to 2.3 per cent in January. Economists had expected inflation to hold...
Prime Minister Mark Carney sent a clear signal through his overtures to the domestic defence industry on Tuesday: it's time to grow. Carney announced the country's first defence industrial strategy in Montreal, a $6.6 billion plan that lays out how Ottawa wants to build out the defence industrial base and scale up small and medium-sized Canadian businesses to create anchor...
New defence strategy has been in the works for more than a year. The Canadian government’s long-awaited defence industrial strategy formally landed on Tuesday and arrives in the shadow of a push by the Trump administration to further make the United States the arms-maker of choice among allies. The new strategy has been in the works for more than a...
Hockey personality Don Cherry and tech titan Edward Rogers are among 30 new recipients of the Order of Ontario. Lt.-Gov. Edith Dumont has announced the 2025 appointments, which include trade union leader Joe Mancinelli of the Labourers' International Union of North America and former ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton. Dumont says the appointees have made a "profound contribution"...
Statistics Canada says lower prices at the pump and easing shelter inflation helped rein in the pressure facing consumers in January. The agency said Tuesday that the annual rate of inflation ticked down to 2.3 per cent last month. Economists had expected inflation to hold steady at 2.4 per cent. StatCan said gas prices were 16.7 per cent lower year-over-year...
Between February 5 and 10, 2026, Abacus Data surveyed 1,915 Canadian adults as part of our ongoing federal political tracking. This wave comes at a consequential moment in federal politics. It follows the Conservative Party convention in Calgary and Pierre Poilievre’s leadership review, but more importantly, it represents the first clear read on the political environment after several weeks of...
A new national survey by Liaison Strategies reveals that if a federal election were held today, the Liberal Party, led by Mark Carney, would hold a substantial 9 point lead over the Conservative Party. The Weekly Federal Tracker shows high approval ratings for Prime Minister Mark Carney, while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre continues to face high unfavourable numbers. Among decided...
As some Albertans push to leave Canada, they could also be pushing away the billions of dollars needed to build a pipeline, in the same way past threats of separation led to capital flight from Quebec, warns the province’s former premier. “The oil and gas sector, the big projects that drive employment and government revenues, require tens of billions of...
Prime Minister Mark Carney released his new Buy Canadian plan for supplying the military and growing Canada’s domestic defence industry on Tuesday. The $6.6-billion plan promises to prioritize building military equipment at home, hike the share of defence contracts awarded to Canadian firms and add up to 125,000 new jobs over the next decade. The strategy aims to grow out...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing mounting calls to speak out against the United States for widening its restrictions on fuel reaching Cuba, or to send aid to the country. For more than a year, Global Affairs Canada has warned travellers of "shortages of basic necessities, including food, medicine and fuel" across most of Cuba. In January, the island lost...
The Canadian prime minister is spearheading discussions between the EU and a major Indo-Pacific trade bloc after calling on middle powers to join forces. Two of the world’s biggest trading blocs are cautiously eyeing closer ties to short-circuit Donald Trump’s tariffs. The European Union and a 12-nation Indo-Pacific bloc are opening talks to explore proposals to form one of the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has chosen Janice Charette, the former head of the public service, to serve as the country's chief trade negotiator to the United States. Charette is a career bureaucrat who twice served as clerk of the Privy Council and once as high commissioner to the United Kingdom. Her appointment comes just ahead of a major review of...
The reborn federal electric vehicle rebate program is set to launch today -- but some of Canada's auto dealers say they're still out tens of thousands dollars from the last one. Starting today, Canadians can access up to $5,000 in government rebates toward the purchase of new electric vehicles that cost less than $50,000. Plug-in hybrids will be eligible for...
As Prime Minister Mark Carney lowers tariffs on imports of Chinese electric vehicles, new polling suggests that Canadians are becoming much more open to buying the cars. Article content More than half of Canadians, or 53%, say that knowing an EV was made in China would have no effect on their purchasing decision, according to a new poll by Nanos...
In preparation for a potential early election, the Conservative Party recently sent notices to 16 ridings in five provinces informing them that anyone interested in seeking the party’s nomination should file their papers by Feb. 25, according to Conservative sources. Of these, nine are in Ontario, three in Nova Scotia, one in New Brunswick, two in British Columbia, and one...
Weeks after Ottawa announced that it would allow a limited number of Chinese-made vehicles into the Canadian market, some have warned that the move puts data privacy at risk. But that might not be a significant turn-off for consumers who are in the market for a new car. While roaming the Canadian International AutoShow on Friday, Dianne Dougall and Pat...
TROIS-RIVIERES -- About 600 people welcomed Charles Milliard as the new head of the Quebec Liberal Party in Trois-Rivieres on Sunday, days after he was acclaimed in a leadership race that no one else joined.
VICTORIA -- Former B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad has announced he will not be entering the party's leadership race, saying the decision comes after "a lot of reflection."
Canada has officially signed onto the European defence procurement program it announced it would join last summer, as Washington's upending of geopolitics overshadows the world's top security conference. Defence Minister David McGuinty announced Ottawa had signed onto the European Union's 150-billion euro program called Security Action for Europe, or SAFE, Saturday at the Munich Security Conference. The program allows EU...
The Liberal government is making sweeping changes to the way it approaches supporting the domestic defence industry, as Canada looks to transition away from over-reliance on the United States for military gear. The government was expected to announce its strategy last week, but Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended his travel due to a mass-shooting in B.C. and pushed the announcement...
China is dropping its visa requirement for Canadian tourists and business visitors, after moves by Prime Minister Mark Carney to put relations with Beijing on a better footing. China's Foreign Ministry says Canadians will no longer be required to get visas for 30-days stays, starting Tuesday until at least the end of this year. A month ago, during his visit...
Despite a slow start in late 2025, Liberal members of the House Finance Committee say they finally see signs of progress towards passing the government’s massive budget implementation bill, although opposition MPs continue to object to a clause in the legislation they argue would grant federal ministers unprecedented powers “like those of a king.”
Economists expect tax changes from a year ago will result in a year-over-year surge in food prices when Statistics Canada reports January inflation figures later this week. StatCan will publish its January consumer price index report on Tuesday, a day later than originally scheduled. The agency recently adopted a Monday publishing schedule for the consumer price index but shifted the...
As discussion around Alberta separation continues, a new survey suggests many Canadians believe the United States would back the province if it chose to leave Confederation. A Nanos Research survey commissioned by CTV News found four in five Canadians believe the U.S. would support Alberta separating from Canada. Respondents in the Prairie provinces reported the highest levels of that belief...
Stephen Colbert isn't backing down in an extraordinary public dispute with his bosses at CBS over what he can air on his late-night talk show.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Late-night host Stephen Colbert said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was pulled from Monday night's broadcast over network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department has issued new subpoenas in a Florida-based investigation into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump and the U.S. government response to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
Late-night host Stephen Colbert said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was pulled from Monday night's broadcast over network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing mounting calls to speak out against the United States for widening its restrictions on fuel reaching Cuba, or to send aid to the country. For more than a year, Global Affairs Canada has warned travellers of "shortages of basic necessities, including food, medicine and fuel" across most of Cuba. In January, the island lost...
China is dropping its visa requirement for Canadian tourists and business visitors, after moves by Prime Minister Mark Carney to put relations with Beijing on a better footing. China's Foreign Ministry says Canadians will no longer be required to get visas for 30-days stays, starting Tuesday until at least the end of this year. A month ago, during his visit...
Foreign diplomats in Ottawa are applauding the vision of Canada’s foreign policy direction outlined by Prime Minister Mark Carney in his Davos address, but they’re coming to different conclusions about how it will get implemented.
President says he won't allow opening until U.S. 'is fully compensated for everything we have given' Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, poised to become the newest border crossing between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. "I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is calling on China to release Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail today under a sweeping national security law. Canada joins numerous peers, including the United States and the European Union, in condemning Beijing for the sentence imposed under a law used to crack down on Hong...
Canada’s first-ever Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) marks a genuine shift in how Ottawa thinks about sovereignty, security, and economic resilience. After decades of treating defence procurement as a back-office function, the government is now framing it as strategic statecraft — linking military readiness, industrial policy, innovation, and economic security. The creation of a Defence Investment Agency and the adoption of...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Cuba has been plunged into darkness. Schools, hospitals and essential services are hit by rolling 12-hour blackouts. Foreigners, including Canadians, have fled. Even worse, infant mortality is climbing.
Lisa Banfield, common-law wife of the man who meticulously slaughtered 22 people six years ago, recently published a memoir of her life-on-eggshells with a controlling killer.
The head of Ottawa’s public service got an earful from the federal information commissioner about the dismal state of access to information – the sign of a growing rift between the Liberal government and Parliament’s watchdog on transparency. At a Nov. 12 meeting, Caroline Maynard presented Michael Sabia, clerk of the Privy Council, with statistics detailing the deterioration of the...
Another Truth Social post, another crack in the Canada-US relationship. US President Trump threatened to stall the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge until 'the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given'. A complete 180 from his joint statement with former Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau back in 2017 when he called for its 'expeditious completion'.
How do you handle an MP who goes rogue from his own party? That's a question for this week's Moore Butts conversation. But first, Gerry Butts on the world's new security order. Gerry has just returned from the Munich Security Conference and the former principal secretary to Justin Trudeau, and former Stephen Harper cabinet minister James Moore discuss how Canada...
The Globe exclusively reported that Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford discussed the possibility of a snap federal election this spring. The next federal election is scheduled for no later than 2029, though historically, minority governments usually last around two years. But just how realistic is this speculation of another election? Laura Stone, who broke the story...
